New Delhi, Nov. 29 -- The Supreme Court on Friday directed elections to more than 280 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats in Maharashtra to go on as scheduled on December 2 while making it clear that the election to 57 seats, where the combined reservation of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes exceeds 50%, shall be subject to final orders to be passed by the court. At the same time, the court restrained the state election body from conducting elections to those Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad seats where the 50% threshold has been breached as the Maharashtra state election commission was not in a position to provide the exact number of such seats. Barring them, the court allowed the state panel to hold polls for the remaining seats. The court passed the order in a batch of petitions which sought implementation of the court's earlier orders directing polls to all local bodies in the state to be completed by January 31. A contempt petition filed by one Rahul Ramesh Wagh alleged that the state was violating the court's triple test laid down in a 2021 judgment which required that total reservation should not exceed 50% across any seats in the local bodies. Striking a balance between enforcement of its own orders and the need to make local governance institutions operational, the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and justice Joymalya Bagchi identified two categories of local bodies - where elections are notified and where the date of polls is yet not declared. On December 2, 246 municipal councils and 42 Nagar Panchayats in the state will go to polls. Maharashtra state election commission (MSEC) counsel senior advocate Balbir Singh told the court that in 40 municipal councils and 17 Nagar Panchayats, total reservation exceeds the 50% mark. For the first category of local bodies, the bench said, "The elections of 246 municipal councils and 42 nagar panchayats may take place as per the notified schedule. However, the result of 40 municipal councils and 17 nagar panchayats where reservation exceeds 50% shall be subject to final orders passed in these proceedings." The second category of local bodies involved 336 Panchayat Samitis, 32 ZIla Parishads and 29 Municipal Corporations where elections are yet to be notified....